Vignettes of the World
The Sam Tung Uk in Tsuen Wan is formerly the Hakka Wai Village (Hakka walled village) of the Chan’s. In Chinese, “tung” means the upper beams of the houses, which support the roof. Because this village had three main halls, the name Sam Tung Uk …
Book Review: Hong Kong Internment, 1942-1945 by Geoffrey Charles Emerson This is a great introduction to Hong Kong’s World War II history. Originally written as a master’s thesis for history, this work approaches the subject matter with sympathy and life-breathing details. One of the main …
Hong Kong’s local oysters mostly come from Lau Fau Shan in western Yuen Long. The second generation owner of oyster farm Chan Cheung Kee decided to satisfy the palate of oyster lovers by opening the Best Oyster Noodle restaurant in Prince Edward. The oysters served at Best Oyster Noodle are sourced only from Joey’s family-run oyster farm in Lau Fau Shan.
Lau Fau Shan receives fresh water from the Pearl River Delta. Where sea water meets fresh water, oysters can grow. As such, Lau Fau Shan once had a vibrant seafood trade, and its oysters were particularly famous.
Chan Cheung Kee has had fifty years of experience as an oyster farm. Joey told us that the farm only supplies to Hong Kong’s restaurants on a wholesale basis. Furthermore, the farm specializes in dried oysters, a standard item on Hong Kong’s Chinese New Year menu. To be able to taste the fresh oysters from Chan Cheung Kee, the only way is to visit Best Oyster Noodle.
Like all food, oysters are seasonal. They are the best between November and April each year. On this October day we came at the low season for oysters. As such, some key items that we wanted to try were not available. We could still pick out a few sought-after items though. My friend ordered oyster in congee. I ordered the set menu of oyster pancake with scallop and shrimp in rich shrimp-based soup.
I took some of my friend’s congee and I thought it was good. To make oyster congee, the oysters have to be small – that is how their sweetest taste will come out in the congee. The congee was tasty. Since all the big oysters were out of season, and so we could not have their fresh oyster noodles.
My shrimp and scallop noodle in rich shrimp soup was very good. I thought their generous use of scallion and parsley really brought out the strength of seafood-based soup. However, because my friend tasted my noodle first, the congee that she had after tasted bland according to her. I am sure it was because of the richness of the shrimp soup base that overwhelmed the relatively light-flavored oyster congee.
My oyster pancake was tasty, although perhaps more oysters would make it even better. Again, small oysters are for the pancakes. What makes this pancake special, as compared to what we usually have at Chiu Chow restaurants, is that Joey uses duck eggs instead of regular eggs in the batter. Furthermore, this pancake was half pan-fried and half fried. As such the texture was a nice balance between crispiness and chewiness.
Golden oysters were also available on the menu but we did not order that. Joey told us that the golden oysters were dried for just 2 to 3 days under the sun. Therefore it preserves the juice of the oyster but with a slight sun-dried saltiness. I am certain that we will try it next time.
We would have loved to try the oyster in pepper soup, the oyster in noodle soup and the pan fried oysters. These dishes require large oysters, which mature beginning in November each year.
The restaurant is very small and so expect some wait at peak hours. We went just before lunch hour started, and so we had a small table to ourselves, and lots of chat time with Joey.
Best Oyster Noodle
Address: Shop C&D, Cheong Ling Mansion, 258-260 Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Prince Edward.
Sources:
Chats with Joey at Best Oyster Noodle
Weekend HK, The First Oyster Noodle in Prince Edward (Chin) September 23, 2020
The Wikipedia on Lau Fau Shan
“During the transport, the chefs would feed the baby pigeons with their own mouths to prevent them from starving. Because we used only baby pigeons of 23-24 days old, they were not able to eat on their own yet. If they could eat on their …
Kam Tin, in the much older times, was known as Shum Tin. During the Ming Dynasty in 1587, a severe drought in the Baoan County depleted the granaries. The magistrate requested the villagers to submit grain. The results were poor, with the exception of the …
We did a quick tour at the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMOA) this day.
We got a ticket for the timeslot of 12:30 – 2:30pm. We were mistaken as we thought that we could stay for as long as we wanted upon admission within the timeslot. As it turned out, everybody had to leave at 2:30pm. We got our coffee at the Ink first and did not spend enough time at the exhibitions. Therefore plan ahead by checking the available timeslots for visits each day.
We took a quick tour at the Ordinary to Extraordinary: Stories of the Museum on first floor. The exhibition shows some of the representative artwork in the four core collections in the Museum: Chinese Antiquities, Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, China Trade Art, and Modern and Hong Kong Art. This is a mixed theme and as such the experience and my review of it was also mixed. I found it difficult to gather a coherent learning when I went through artwork of different nature and time periods within a short period of time.
There were some highlights, however. The set of 12 porcelain cups showing seasonal floral themes were just beautiful. They were the products of the famous pottery-making town, Jingde. Apparently, it is extremely rare to be able to collect all twelve cups representing each month of the year. This set was the hard work of a passionate collector.
Another piece that caught my eyes was the Large Teapot with Ribbed Decoration and Overhead Handle. It was a Yixing Pottery, the preeminent potter Yixing of Zisha (purple) tea ware. Dr. Lo, a keen collector of purple pottery, knew that the Yixing production was near-extinguished in 1979. He visited the one remaining potter there and advised them to sign the potter’s name as an inscription on their products. This teapot was a product of Yixing’s revived tea ware industry.
There was a very interesting art installation within this exhibition. At first glance, A Book from the Sky seems to be just a large collection of archaic Chinese texts, arranged artistically. There was a catch though. The “creativity” in this installation is in the four thousand “non-words” that the creator made over a four-year period with wooden print blocks. These words then printed in the traditional way. They then went into bound volumes and calligraphic scrolls that resembled Chinese classical texts.
When the viewer comes closer to the artwork, it would take a second or two to realize that these words make absolute no sense, despite their appearance. The message then was much more provocative. Modern readers of Chinese might stay away from these traditional bounded volumes anyway because even in real Chinese they are difficult to understand. In that sense, seeing this artwork elicits the exact same feeling when we opens up an ancient scroll. Even with real Chinese words, these scrolls are unreadable anyway.
At this point we really had to hurry because the museum announced the closing time. We quickly went up to 5th floor to see the work of local artists. The exhibition Classic Remix: The Hong Kong Viewpoint shows the uniform theme of Hong Kong art. I particularly enjoyed the series of sketches of different Hong Kong locations in the 1980s and 1990s. The captions were memoir-like, telling the story of the creator and his perspectives on these typical scenes of Hong Kong. It felt like reading an illustrated memoir.
Finally, take a walk in the vicinity. You will see many interesting installations. At the Ink, we had coffee with views of the Hong Kong Skyline across the Victoria Harbour. That itself was quite an experience.
We went by private car and the closest parking lot is K11 Musea. By public transport, direct yourself to the Space Museum and the HKMOA is right behind it.
Sources:
The Hong Kong Museum of Art
As of June 2023, the giant twines of Mau Ping have been destroyed (not completely) by a vicious person, who chopped down parts of the old trees. The twines suffered significant damage. Some experts have assessed that the damage is too great for the twines …
After visiting the Police Museum, we decided to take a walk in the neighboring Aberdeen Reservoir. The entrance to the trail is right next to the Wan Chai Gap Park on the Aberdeen Reservoir Road. Simply walk along, all the way down on the paved …
Given the turn of events since last year, the Police Museum is probably not a kind of place that I would like to visit. Who wants to make the effort just to receive more propaganda, as if what we have been getting is not enough? But the Police Museum presents the official history of the Hong Kong Police Force, and it is surprisingly pleasant.
There were a total of five chambers within the museum showing different aspects of police history. The galleries display more than a thousand captions and artifacts. From machine guns to forensic photography, the museum covers many themes of the police’s work since its very beginning.
Photo: Forensic gear on display
I was particularly drawn to the history of police stations in Hong Kong because many police stations stand tall in the history of Hong Kong.
In 1841 when Britain formally took over Hong Kong, the Colonial Government set up the Hong Kong Police Force. The first “police station” in Hong Kong was a mere mat-shed shelter on a site next to what would become Tai Kwun in Central. Captain William Caine was the Chief Magistrate then overseeing the development of the Hong Kong Police Force.
The Tai Po Police Station would become the hotbed of conflicts when Britain took over the New Territories in 1899. The Colonial Government then decided to raise the British flag next to a mat-shed shelter police station on a hill in Tai Po known as Flagstaff Hill. The act of taking possession at the police station met with armed resistance of the indigenous villagers in the New Territories. The conflict set off what became known as The Six-Day War of 1899. Before the day due for flag raising, the villagers burned down this original site of the Tai Po Police Station. The flag raising later convened successfully, although the battles between the villagers and the Colonial army continued. Eventually, the new building for the Tai Po Police station would inaugurate, and served as the New Territories Headquarters for the Hong Kong Police Force.
A number of old police stations are now heritage sites. For example, the Tai Kwun, formerly the Central Police Station, is now a revitalized heritage site. The Tai O Police station is now a heritage hotel. And needless to say, the 1881 Heritage in Tsim Sha Tsui is formerly the Marine Police Headquarters. The Old Stanley Police Station of 1859 is the oldest police station building standing in Hong Kong. Finally, the Police Museum itself is formerly a police station, the Wan Chai Gap Police Station at the Peak, Coombe Road.
Yet there are historic police station buildings that continue to serve their original purpose. These are: the Police Station at the Peak (since 1886), the Cheung Chau Police Station (1913), Lok Ma Chau Police Station (1915), the Yau Ma Tei Police Station (1922), the Sham Shui Po Police Station (1925) and the Mong Kok Station (1925) respectively.
One of the most interesting history was the MacIntosh Cathedral. They are a group of Police posts along the northern border. Back in the 1950s, unstable conditions in mainland China has caused refugees to flee to Hong Kong. The police then had frequent clashes with gangsters at the border, sometimes in armed conflicts. Then Police Commissioner Duncan MacIntosh established seven border posts of reinforced concrete between 1950 and 1953 along a string of hills at the border. They became known as the MacIntosh Cathedral.
Photo: a model of the MacIntosh Cathedral
As of now, there are 62 police stations, patrol posts and reporting facilities in Hong Kong.
On the display is a Bren Gun that used to belong to the Marine Police. In 1949, pirates attacked the Police Launch No. 1, killing a few officers and taking away this gun. In 1956, an amrmourer of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Command Workshop in Kowloon found this gun in the repair unit. It turns out that this gun was recaptured by the British forces in the Korean War and subsequently used by three separate British army regiments before being sent back to Hong Kong. I marveled at this story.
Perhaps the part of police history that is most relevant to the events of last year is the history of the Tactical Unit. After the “Double Tenth” riot of 1956, the British assessed the situation and set up the Police Tactical Contingent in an army camp in Fanling. The unit would serve to maintain internal security. Training started in 1958. The training involved six modules including internal security control, crowd management, anti-crime tactics, firearms training, physical training and other training. The unit served a critical role in suppressing the 1967 Riots. The Police Tactical Unit was renamed such in 1968. They are distinguished by the blue berets that they wear, and thus locally known as “blue berets.”
My friend was particularly keen on seeing this gallery. Indeed, small as it is, it does give us a glimpse of the triads and their working, including initiation ceremonies. There is a “heroin-making” display that is also very interesting. Perhaps due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, we could not take any photographs in these galleries.
Overall, this exhibition has shown some really interesting history. Although as official history there is not one word on police corruption in the early times and police brutality now, both of which being a major disgrace, the museum does present interesting facts that are not controversial. I highly encourage anyone with children to see the museum. Of if you hold the Hong Kong Police in distaste, perhaps reading this entry alone will do for you.
We went by private car and there is metered parking on site.
Photo: This was an actual traffic-direction booth
Source: The exhibition on site at the Police Museum.
The Chinese name of Amah Rock means the “husband-yearning rock.” “Why do you always go to these haunted places?” A good friend said when I told her that I would like to visit the Amah rock. Like so many places in Hong Kong that come …